President Joe Biden’s administration continues to move forward with plans to attack hidden fees thrown at Americans and here's the latest case in point: The Department of Transportation is looking to eliminate fees involving children on airlines.
The DOT has proposed legislation that would stop airlines from being able to charge a family extra money for selecting seating next to their children, as long as seats are available.
The legislation would apply to every U.S. carrier as long as there are adjacent seats available when a family is booking. It also classifies children as being under the age of 14.
“Parents traveling with young kids should be able to sit together without an airline forcing them to pay junk fees,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a press release. “We have been pressing airlines to guarantee family seating without tacking on extra charges, and now we’re seeing some airlines start to make this common-sense change. All airlines should do this promptly, even as we move forward to develop a rule establishing this as a requirement across the board.”
The purpose of the legislation is to guarantee “fee-free family” seating for those already spending money on travel. Biden and Buttigieg are calling on Congress to pass the legislation, as transportation officials have begun the “lengthy” work of rulemaking to ensure young children have an accompanying adult next to them.
Buttigieg wrote a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about the legislation and the concern his department has after reviewing airlines’ seating policies, noting that allowing a child to travel with a family member is not guaranteed to come at “no additional cost” for many carriers, even if the seats are open.
The DOT has now launched an Airline Family Seating Dashboard, which shows would-be-travelers the airlines that promise adjacent seats for children and their accompanying adults at no extra cost.
Among the airlines to make the change already include American Airlines and Frontier. Biden and Buttigieg have both commended the airlines for deciding to cut out the extra junk fees.
Biden’s new focus on eliminating junk fees for Americans has come at a time when many are criticizing airlines and ticket purveyors, like Ticketmaster, for hiding the true price of things to make more money.
“Junk fees are not only costly to consumers, but they can stifle competition by encouraging companies to use increasingly sophisticated tools to disguise the true price consumers face,” the White House shared in a press release last month. “By reducing these fees and increasing transparency, we can provide relief to consumers and make our economy more competitive, particularly for new and growing businesses.”
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